1920 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 3000 m team (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	3000 meter team run
gender	Men
Attendees	31 athletes from 6 countries
Competition location	Antwerp Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 21, 1920 (preliminary round) August 22, 1920 (final)
Medalist  United States  GBR  SWE

The men's 3,000-meter team run at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp was held on August 21 and 22, 1920 in the Antwerp Olympic Stadium. 31 athletes took part.

The US team won the gold medal ahead of Great Britain and Sweden.

Teams from Germany, Austria and Switzerland did not take part.

Conducting the competition

On August 21st at 3:15 pm local time, two races were held as preliminary rounds. It remains quite a mystery how this type of run came about and what prelims were set up for at all. Four teams competed in the first run, the last of which was eliminated. The second heat was played with two teams, both of which qualified for the final on August 22nd at 4:50 pm.

Each team could compete with a maximum of five runners, the best three of them were rated with points according to their placements (1st place = 1 point, 2nd place = 2 points, etc.). These placements were added up, the order resulted from the lowest sums in each case, so it was purely a place number evaluation, achieved times played no role.

Note: The teams qualified for the next round are highlighted in light blue. The runners not considered for the award of points are written in italics.

Preliminary round

Date: August 21, 1920

Run 1

Single results

space	Surname	nation	Points
1	Sven Lundgren	Sweden	1
2	Duncan McPhee	Great Britain	2
3	John Zander	Sweden	3
4th	Joe Blewitt	Great Britain	4th
5	William Seagrove	Great Britain	5
6th	Ernesto Ambrosini	Italy	6th
7th	Julien Van Campenhout	Belgium	7th
8th	Eric Backman	Sweden	8th
9	Augusto Maccario	Italy	9
10	Carlo Speroni	Italy	10
11	Edvin Wide	Sweden	-
12	Percy Hodge	Great Britain	-
13	James Hatton	Great Britain	-
14th	Claude Otterbeen	Belgium	11
15th	Carlo Martinenghi	Italy	-
16	Lucien Bangels	Belgium	12
17th	Josef Holsner	Sweden	-
18th	François Vyncke	Belgium	-
19th	Pierre Trullemans	Belgium	-
20th	Henri Smets	Belgium	-

Team ranking

space	team	Athletes	Points	annotation
1	Great Britain	Duncan McPhee (2) Joe Blewitt (4) William Seagrove (5)	11
2	Sweden	Sven Lundgren (1) John Zander (3) Eric Backman (8)	12
3	Italy	Ernesto Ambrosini (6) Augusto Maccario (9) Carlo Speroni (10)	25th
4th	Belgium	Julien Van Campenhout (7) Claude Otterbeen (11) Lucien Bangels (12)	30th

Run 2

Single results

space	Surname	nation	Points
1	Edmond Brossard	France	1
2	Armand Burtin	France	2
3	Horace Brown	United States	3
4th	Gaston Hay	France	4th
5	Michael Devaney	United States	5
6th	Ivan Dresser	United States	6th
7th	Lawrence Shields	United States	-
8th	Arlie Schardt	United States	-
9	Lucien Duquesne	France	-
10	René Vignaud	France	-

Team ranking

space	team	Athletes	Points	annotation
1	France	Edmond Brossard (1) Armand Burtin (2) Gaston Heuet (4)	7th
2	United States	Horace Brown (3) Michael Devaney (5) Ivan Dresser (6)	14th

final

Single results

Date: August 22, 1920

space	Surname	nation	Points
1	Horace Brown	United States	1
2	Eric Backman	Sweden	2
3	Arlie Schardt	United States	3
4th	Armand Burtin	France	4th
5	Joe Blewitt	Great Britain	5
6th	Ivan Dresser	United States	6th
7th	Albert Hill	Great Britain	7th
8th	Lawrence Shields	United States	-
9	William Seagrove	Great Britain	8th
10	James Hatton	Great Britain	-
11	Ernesto Ambrosini	Italy	9
12	Michael Devaney	United States	-
13	Sven Lundgren	Sweden	10
14th	Gaston Hay	France	11
15th	Edvin Wide	Sweden	12
16	Augusto Maccario	Italy	13
17th	Carlo Speroni	Italy	14th
18th	Edmond Brossard	France	15th
19th	Carlo Martinenghi	Italy	-
20th	Josef Holsner	Sweden	-
21st	Lucien Duquesne	France	-
DNF	Duncan McPhee	Great Britain
	René Vignaud	France

Team ranking

space	team	Athletes	Points	annotation
1	United States	Horace Brown (1) Arlie Schardt (3) Ivan Dresser (6)	10
2	Great Britain	Joe Blewitt (5) Albert Hill (7) William Seagrove (8)	20th
3	Sweden	Eric Backman (2) Sven Lundgren (10) Edvin Wide (12)	24
4th	France	Armand Burtin (4) Gaston Heuet (11) Edmond Brossard (15)	30th
5	Italy	Ernesto Ambrosini (9) Augusto Maccario (13) Carlo Speroni (14)	36

For reasons unknown, Finland decided not to take part, although the runners from that country would have had a great chance of winning the gold medal here too. So the US athletes surprisingly won this race.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 139f

Web links

• SportsReference 3000 meter team , accessed September 1, 2017
• Official report French (PDF), accessed on September 1, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ^ Official report, page 108 (French) ( Memento of October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive )